At present, there is only one type of fixed wing aircraft with vertical take-off qualities in the (military) service: The Harrier developed in the 60s of Hawker Siddeley (GB), as well as its succession models. Two other types are in the military test phase and development stage: The Bell Boeing V-22 Tiltrotor (WO91/05704) and the F-35B of Lockheed Martin.
All civil projects have failed because of the high demands of the requirements. By modern and well ductile materials, which are extremely light for their stability (In particular the fiber composite material: CFRP), light and economic airplanes with vertical take-off qualities became possible also for the civil market.
Modern variants of the engines/drive systems: Gas turbine, internal combustion engine/petrol engine, Wankel engine, rocket engine, electric generator combined with high-power electronics and electric motor, have become essential reliable, lighter, more powerful and better controllable, in comparison to 1965 when the Harrier was developed.
Modern computer systems in combination with modern situation and acceleration sensors, permit a reactive control mechanism more reliably and quicker than it is possible with a human hand and thus a stable flight also in difficult to be controlled conditions. On account of this progress the most different ideas for the development of new airplanes with vertical take-off qualities currently exist worldwide. These include, inter alia, Skycar (Paul S. Moller), X-Hawk (WO2006/072960: Rafi Yoeli) and ring wing (U.S. Pat. No. 6,254,032 to Franz Bucher).
Prior techniques showed no subdivision of hover flight optimized components (rotors) on one hand, and cruise flight optimized components (wing, propeller) on the other hand. This results in significantly increased power demand for hover flight, as exemplified by Harrier, F-35B, Skycar, X-Hawk and ring wing; respectively of less efficient cruise flight, as exemplified by Tiltrotor/V22:                For cruise flight, excessively oversized and not optimum hover flight components are not hidden in the cruise flight modus: Tiltrotor, Skycar, X-Hawk and ring wing.        No change in the more economic cruise flight modus: X-Hawk        The tiltable drive components, are not right in such a way that the output ray does not paint over the main wings and other components. This results in losses and instabilities by, according to tilt angle different, turbulences: Tiltrotor, ring wing        No inherent stability by the airplane form in the transitional area of the hover flight in the cruise flight and back: Skycar, ring wing, Tiltrotor        No clear view in all flight directions (to the top, ahead, to the bottom): Harrier, F-35B, Skycar, X-Hawk, ring wing, Tiltrotor (All mentioned attempts)        No distribution of the power achievement per rotor on several engines: All mentioned attempts.        No possibility for the gliding flight landing: Skycar, X-Hawk, ring wing.        No possibility for the gliding flight landing in the same touch down point like with the hover flight approach: All mentioned attempts.        No solid-propellant rockets to the damping of an impact with the achievement failure respectively drop in performance shortly before the landing in the hover flight: All mentioned attempts.        